My review of Frances Mayes' novel Women in Sunlight

Women in Sunlight by Frances Mayes

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Frances Mayes' novel Women in Sunlight reads like a Tuscany travelogue for middle-aged women. In a way, Women in Sunlight resembles Mayes' 1999 memoir, Bella Tuscany, with the addition of fictional characters who choose a Tuscan adventure at pivotal points in their lives. What Newsday said about Bella Tuscany applies here, too: "A love letter to Italy written in precise and passionate language of near poetic density ..."

One narrator in the story is Kit Raine, an American poet who has lived in Tuscany thirteen years when Camille, Julia, and Susan come from America to rent the house next door rather than move into an over-50 community in the U.S. An unnamed omniscient narrator tells how each woman reinvents, rediscovers, and blossoms among Tuscany's many pleasures. Each emerges from her backstory changed in positive ways.

I get a little confused when the narrator switches, but I can roll with that. Italy's history, art, natural beauty, and cuisine serve as muses for all the women, as well as the men they encounter. As much as I enjoy vicariously traveling to Tuscany, I find its perfection a bit tiresome. Mayes presents everything as glorious. That the women glow in their transformations affirms their courage to step out. That everything about Tuscany glows, however, is a little hard to swallow. Lastly, it seems unlikely to me that every character is as well-versed in Italian history, literature, and art as Mayes is.

That said, one reason I enjoy reading just about anything by Frances Mayes is her knowledge of Italian history, literature, and art. Not to mention cuisine! While reading Women in Sunlight, I often felt I was in over my head in the literature and art history departments. But that's okay; this stretches me. Traveling to Tuscany with Mayes gives a reader an understanding of Italian culture and customs that a mere tourist cannot gain. Yes, Women in Sunlight truly is "A love letter to Italy written in precise and passionate language of near poetic density ..."



View all my reviews